Tune-sheet for automatic musical instruments.



1.1. WALKER. TUNE SHEET FOR AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY I6, I9l2.

Petented Feb. 29,1916.

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" adjustment on the tracker JAMES JOI-IN WALKER, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

TUNE-SHEET FOR AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

Original application filed July 10, 1911, Serial No. 637,761.

To all Aw'zom t may concern:

Be it known that I, J AMES J oHN WALKER, a subject of the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and residing at 27 Francis street, Tottenham Court Road, London, England, have invented new and useful Improvements in or Relating to Tune-Sheets for Automatic Musical Instruments, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to tune sheets for automatic musical instruments the playing of which is controlled by such a sheet traveling over a tracker board having ports operatively connected with the respective notesounding motors, and it has for its object to provide improved means by which the said tune sheet can be automatically maintained in, or returned to, its proper position for insuring register between its respective rows of note slots or perforations and the respective tracker board ports.

Hitherto the automatic control of the tune sheet in respect of its transverse or lateral hoard has been effected through ports controlled by :-(a) the edges of the tune sheets, or perforations near those edges, which arrangements have been found unreliable because the normal register of the said edges or perforations with the respective so-called control ports is so readily disturbed by lateral expansion and contraction of the tune sheet due to climatic influence, and (b) perforations in the tune sheet adapted to coperate with control ports arranged in the line of the note-controllingr ports of the tracker board and not to coperate with the said note-controlling ports, which arrangement involves a proportionate increase in the width of the tune sheet.

It is known that during the normal travel of a tune sheet, perforations in such sheet of less than a given area relatively to the area of the ordinary ports of a tracker board, can register with those ports without, in any way, affecting the playing of the music, the reason being that the perforations are not large enough to allow air to pass therethrough in sufficient volume to admit of the motors connected with the said ports becoming operative or responsive.

The present invention avails itself of that property of irresponsiveness of the coperation of underslzed tune sheet perforations Specification of Letters atent.

Patented Feb. 29, 1916.

Eivided and this application filed July 16,

Serial No. 708,639.

with the ordinary tracker board ports, and provides an arrangement whereby it can be advantageously utilized in connection with the automatic control of the tracking posiion of the tune sheet relatively to the tracker board.

The invention will be best understood by reference to the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a plan showing part of the improved tune sheet and the tracker board with which it is adapted to be used, the former in correct tracking position relatively to the latter, and F ig. 2 is a similar view showing the tune sheet in incorrect position relativeiy to the tracker board.

T he tracker board 1, which constitutes the subject matter of separate patent application, Serial No. 637761, filed July 10th, 1911, from which the present application has been divided, besides being provided with the ordinary ports Q, a, c, and (Z is provided with ports 3, 1, hereinafter referred to as register control ports, situated at either the front or rear of the ports 2 or, as shown in the drawings, each register control port 3, 4, may be formed in two portions one at the front and the other at the rear of the said ordinary ports. The two portions of each register control port 3, e are alined with each other in the direction of travel of the tune sheet 5, and both of the register control ports 3 are pneumatically connected together and to a motor which, when actuated, serves, for example in well-known manner, to move either the tune sheet 5 rightward or the tracker board 1 leftward. Correspondingly, both of the register control ports e are pneumatically connected together and to a motor which latter, when actuated, serves for eX- ample, to move either the tune sheet 5 leftward or the tracker board 1 rightward; or the said motors may effect the restoration of the tracking register between the tracker board 1 and the tune sheet 5, in any other convenient manner, for example, in the manner set forth in the specification of my former Letters Patent No. 911789 dated 9th February, 1909.

The last mentioned motors, for convenience, are hereinafter referred to as registerrestoring motors; they are not represented in the drawings because they constitute no part of the present invention, and they may be of any desired construction.

ferred to as The ports 2 are those which control the operation of the note-sounding motors, and the four ports a, Z), c, (l, are those which control devices brought into operation by perforations situated preferably near the respectively opposite ends of the tune sheet, for example, devices for elfecting:-(a) the stoppage of the music roll without rewinding; the stoppage of the music roll after rewinding; (c) the stoppage of the music roll and rewinding, and (d) the restarting of the music roll after rewinding.

The register control ports 3, el are situated in alinement with the ports a, Il), or c, d, not because the perforations 6, 7 of the tune sheet, which are adapted to cooperate with such register control ports 3, el, would have any elect upon the ports 2 did they travel over them, but for the reason that the ports 2 being those which control the note-sounding motors, would necessitate the presence of note pertorations at parts of the tune sheet where they would conflict with the register control perforations o, 7. Hence it isgthat theregister control ports 3, et are situated adjacent to ports a, b or c, d, which do not call for the presence of perforations in the tune sheet anywhere excepting near the respectively opposite ends thereof, at which parts the presence of the register control perforations G, 7 is obviously7 unnecessary.

8 are the ordinary tune sheet note-perforaticns which, when registering with the ports 2, cause the actuation of the respective note-sounding motors, and 9 are the parti tions between adjacent ports 2, a, b, 0, and d.

According to the present invention each or" the conti-ol perforations 6, 7 (these are hereinafter referred to as register control perforations) is of such small size that individually it will have no effect when it registers with any of the tracker board ports a, c, d, and for convenience these ports a, c, l and the ports 2 are hereinaiter renormal ports. The said perforations are arranged in two parallel rows of series or groups, each series or group with the spaces between the perforations of such group, extending over a linear distance approximately equal to the over-all length of the register control port 3 or 4, which latter, on the other hand, are of such length as will enable a suliciency of the said register control perforations of each individual group to simultaneously register therewith. In the example represented each series or group consists of seven perforations each preferably about one millimeter in diameter, and about two millimeters from its neighbor. lWith the register control perforations 6, 7 of this size and thus spaced apart, it is impossible for any two of them to simultaneously register with any of the normal ports a, 7), c, d, and consequently although these perforations may pass overl the said normal ports, the instrument, as above described, will not be alfected thereby. Moreover, as the distance between a normal port a, c, or d, and the respective adjacent register control port or el is not less than tne diameter of a register control perforation, no one of these pertorations can simultaneously cooperate with a normal port and a register control port. The register control perforations 6 or 7 of each series or group are however sufficient in their collective area to effect the operation of the respective regjeter-restoring motor when, by any lateral deviation of the tune sheet 5 from its normal course, they come into register with the respective register control port 3 or el as represented rnor example in Fig. 2, inv which figure some of the register control perforations of both of the rows are shown in register with the respective register control ports 4c.

rllhe different series or groups of eachv row of register control perfor-ations 6 or 7 are in staggered relationship to the different series or groups of the other row, and the space between any'two successive groups is approximately equal to the length of each of the groups. By this arrangement the two rows of register control perforations 6, 7 alternate in having their groups alongside of the respective register control ports 3, 4 and there Vwill always be a full complement of the said perorations either alongside of, or in register with, the respective register control port or ports. By this alternation of the respective series or groups of register control perforations 6, 7, a great advantage is obtained over existing arrangements inasmuch as, although the said perforations exercise a continuous control, the tune sheet 5 is not dangerously weakened as would be the case were these register control perforations arranged in one continuous or unbroken line extending throughout the length of the tune sheet as has heretofore been proposed. lV hen the tune sheet 5 is traveling relatively to the tracker board l, in the correct position necessary for the note perforations to properly register with the respective normal ports 2, the register control perforations 6 and 7 pass between the respective register control ports 3, l, without registering with either of them as represented in Fig. l, consequently the registerrestoring motors remain at rest. JV hen, however, the tune sheet is traveling out of correct position relatively to the tracker board l, say too much toward the righthand side, and the registration between the note perforations 8 and normal ports 2 is disturbed or in danger ol' being disturbed, the two rows of register control perforations 6, 7 come into register with the respective register control ports 4, as shown in connection with both sets of perforations 6 and 7 in Fig. 2, and thereby effect the operation of the corresponding register restoring motor which restores the normal relationship between the tune sheet and tracker board. During the brief period that the register control peri'orations 6, 7 are traveling in register with the register control ports e as just mentioned, they also travel in register with the normal ports b, d respectively, but as no two of them can simultaneously register with any one of such normal ports, and the area ot' each such `perforation is, as aforesaid, insufficient to have any eii'ect on the motors connected with the said normal ports, those motors will remain at rest until the tune sheet perforations respectively appertaining to these ports a, c, d come into register with them.

I claim 1. A tune sheet having groups of register control perforations controlling the proper registration of the note perforations in the sheet with the note ducts in the tracker board, each control perforation being too small to have individually any operative eect and the groups being spaced from one another and alined in the direction of travel of the sheet substantially as set forth.

Q. A tune sheet having a plurality of rows of groups of register control perforations controlling the proper registration of the note pert'orations in the sheet with the note ducts in the tracker board, each control perforation being too small to have individually any operative eect and the groups being spaced from one another in the several rows and so arranged that the spaces between groups in one row are oppo site the spaced groups in another' row.

3. A tune sheet having register control periorations controlling the proper registration of the note perforations in the sheet with the note ducts in the tracker board, and of such small size as individually to have no operative eii'ect and arranged a little out or' longitudinal alinement with normal slots in the sheet.

e. A tune sheet having a line of register control perforations controlling the proper registration of the note perfor-ations in the sheet with the note ducts in the tracker board, and of such small size as individually to have no operative eiiect and arranged slightly to one side of a longitudinal line passing through normal slots in the sheet.

5. A tune sheet having a line of register control perforations controlling the proper registration of the note perfor-ations in the sheet with the note ducts in the tracker board, and of such small size as individually to have no operative ei'ect and arranged in parallel relation with the normal perforations.

6. A tune sheet having a plurality of longitudinal lines of register control perorations controlling the proper registration of the note perfor-ations in the sheet with the note ducts in the tracker board, and of such small size as individually to have no operative eect and arranged in spaced groups, each of said lines being to one side of a longitudinal line passing through normal slots, groups of said perforations in one of such lines being opposite Spaces between groups in a companion line.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two witnesses.

JAMES J. WALKER.

Witnesses:

O. J. VORTH, HENRY HART.

Copies o! this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

